RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Several swimmers were listed with the wrong qualifying times coming into the Rio Olympics.
World governing body FINA was able to correct some mistakes, including that of a Kuwaiti swimmer competing under the International Olympic Committee flag because her country’s national committee has been suspended from taking part in the games.
The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported that 17 swimmers from 16 countries still had qualifying times that didn’t match the actual results from last year’s world championships in Kazan, Russia. All were admitted to the games under the “universality rule,” which is designed to spread the sport to developing countries that would not otherwise have qualified.
FINA said the Olympic competition was not affected by the botched times, but there were renewed questions about the murky way swimming is governed and organized.
“For us, there is no question over the eligibility of the swimmers to compete and we have even gone slightly over the 900-swimmer quota,” FINA said in a statement early Friday. “The mistakes, if any, did not have any impact whatsoever to the outcome of the competition and to the athletes’ participation.”